Laser printers helped revolutionize the printing industry in large part because of their speed and efficiency. Unlike inkjet or dot-matrix printers, a laser printer is able to store the image data in its memory and not have any lapses in printing while waiting for more data to arrive. This increased speed, however, does have its limitations, as anyone who has tried to do large back-to-back print jobs will be aware, the printer will require time to cool off in between. This cool down period will prove to be crucial in getting your printer to work optimally.



In order to understand why this cool down is necessary, it’s important to take a look at the anatomy of a printer and printer ink cartridges. First, consider the Raster Image Processor (RIP); the memory portion of the printer. It is what allows you to print a large amount of pages continuously without having to wait for more data to arrive. Next is the photoconductor unit, which receives an electrostatic charge and carries the image or text. The dry particles of printer ink or “toner” are electrostatically attracted to the photoconductor’s latent image, and then finally the photoreceptor is pressed over the paper which transfers the image. The final step, and most important in understanding the required cool down, in getting the ink onto the paper is called fusing. Fusing is where the paper passes through heated rollers pressed together to essentially iron the printer ink in its place.



The fuser must get uniformly heated in order for the proper bonding of the printer ink, as such when this unit operates for an extended period of time the rest of the printer unit, including printer ink cartridges, can easily become overheated. A primary power saving function of the majority of these printers is to turn off the fuser and let it cool once it reaches a certain temperature or time of usage. Improvements are constantly being made in the material used to manufacture the fuser so that it can more quickly return to a normal operating temperature.



While the feature of shutting down to allow itself to cool may interfere with your ability to print as much as you would like at a given time, it will prolong the life of your printer and printer ink cartridges. There are higher end printers available for those with heavy printing requirements and most good laser printers will give you a recommended usage amount for the printer, for example, 20,000 sheets per month. Staying within that recommendation and always allowing your printer the time to cool between jobs will ensure you have the unit functioning for years to come.